Blue-in-Green:RADIO

Monday, 9 June 2014

'Love and Revolution' by Nicola Conte [album review]

On the eve of the UK release of his fifth album, 'Free Souls' - one of the most prolific artists I can think of, I thought it'd be cool to revisit the previous release by Italian guitarist and
producer, Nicola Conte and his 2011 album,
‘Love and Revolution’ on Impulse Records. (Interestingly not released through his
own Schema Records, however, as his Blue Note Records release, ‘Other
Directions’, demonstrates, he’s certainly partial to collaborating with outside
labels.)

Although the themes of this release are fairly obviously spelt out in the
title, thinking about it, ‘Love’ and ‘Revolution’ are probably themes that have
played a consistent part in much of Nicola Conte’s ever expanding catalogue.
And it really is ever expanding. In the past eleven years, since ‘Jet Sounds’
was bestowed upon us, Conte has amassed a discography including, now, five solo studio
albums, which don’t include the remix albums, deluxe reissues and Viagem compilations,
nor mentioning the long list of outside collaborations and remixes that seem to
surface on a daily basis. Where he finds time to do anything else is beyond
me?!

‘Love and Revolution’ sources Conte’s typically glorious cocktail of bossa
mixed with contemporary and classic jazz stylings, but this time there’s a
more-than-welcome dash of 70s soul thrown in, all making the perfect inimitable
blend for a quality summer soundtrack. Guests abound on this one too as Gregory
Porter (whose excellent opener, ‘Do You Feel Like I Feel’, is a close
show-stealer), Jose James (who appears on three tracks: bliss!) and
Nailah Porter take up vocal duties, and guest musicians include saxophonists,
Timo Lassy and Magnus Lindgren, trumpeters Till Bronner and Fabrizio Bosso,
bassist Paolo Benedettini, and pianist Pietro Lussu.

I mentioned ‘Do You Feel Like I Feel’ as a gleaming highlight, on an album
where there are many, including the Roy Ayers reworking of ‘Love from the Sun’
(featuring the aforementioned James and (N)Porter), but in honesty, each
probably queue behind the incredible title track, as sang by Melanie
Charles, which is a rousing and uplifting number that’s impossible not to leave
you humming blissfully for the rest of your day. As with any Conte album, there
are few issues to complain about, but in this case, the exception would have to
be ‘Bantu’ which, as good as it is, just seems somewhat out of place. Its
thumping, almost dance/house-like nature boasts of Conte’s versatility, but just
doesn’t really fit within the album’s overall tone here (and perhaps would have
been better placed amongst the second disc of the deluxe edition(?)).

I’m biting my knuckles as I type this to suppress my possible over-excitement
as I mumble the words: “… his best album yet!?”. Time is always the best judge
of these things though but it does add further weight to the argument that Conte
couldn’t make a bad song if he tried, let alone a bad album.

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About Me

By day, I fight the crimes of grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors in the publishing industry while chained to a desk. But. By night... when my two litt ones are tucked up for sleep, I immerse myself within the wonders of the music world and nurture my obsession through the random ramblings and musings on The Blue-in-Green Blog.

All of that, you guessed correctly... while chained to my other desk.

The Blue-in-Green Sessions (hence the blog name) has existed since 2006 and focuses
on the very best that I can get my hands on in soul, jazz and funk
music.
The radio station and the blog aims to chronicle my adventures in soul music as I
discover new artists/albums and interview a fair few along the way too.
The plan is/was/and always will be to hopefully put you guys on to
something fantastic and new in the world of soul music. If you've never
heard of them, and like what you hear, then that's great; if it makes
you want to get in touch and pitch things my way, then that's even
better.